Mary Berry

Mary Berry hasn't heard of Noel Fielding

Mary Berry hasn't heard of new Great British Bake Off host Noel Fielding.

Here's one that will make you feel really old: it's 10 years since the final series of Little Britain aired on BBC One. The show that made David Walliams a bona-fide star served as a launchpad for a career that has seen him take on a judging role on Britain's Got Talent, undertake jaw-dropping charity work (his Thames swim remains a crowning glory), and become a successful children's author.

Now he's going back to his comedy roots with a one-off Christmas TV special. Titled Walliams & Friend, it sees the comedian return to the type of sketches that helped make his name - and his 'friend' is a very special guest indeed. It is, of course, the absolutely fabulous Joanna Lumley, who remains a brilliant comedic presence.

By its very nature sketch comedy is hit-or-miss, but Walliams & Friend is thankfully more of the former - from a hilariously terrible gameshow contestant played by Walliams, to a meeting between Joanna Lumley and her own personal team of, erm, other Joanna Lumleys.

And then there's the Bake Off sketch - you'll never look at Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry in the same way ever again.

The 40-minute special is daft fun - and likely to be even funnier after a few Christmas Eve sherries. Here's hoping for more Walliams & Friend episodes in the future with a different guest star each time.

Radio Times review

The "Friend" is Joanna Lumley, who accompanies David Walliams through an inevitably uneven, but more-winners-than-losers sketch show. There's a disturbing pastiche of The Great British Bake Off with Paul Hollywood (Walliams, alarming with hedgehog hair) and Mary Berry (Lumley) unable to conceal their lust for one another.

In what feels like an updating of Ronnie Barker's classic Mispronunciation Sketch, Walliams is a party guest who invented autocorrect, and he drags up to play a passive-aggressive, glowing orange tanning salon receptionist. But maybe you'll prefer his Oscar Wilde, or the businessman dad who gives his little daughter a bedtime story in bullet points.

Bake Off musical with a recipe for success at Fringe

A creepy master baker and his fragrant co-host fight for small-screen domination. The lovey-dovey presenter coaxes along seven manic contestants whose common yearning is to whisk up the perfect custard. Should the characters seem eerily familiar after Mary Berry and Co returned to our screens last night for The Great British Bake Off, this version has been cooked up to a special operatic recipe and served with a dollop of Fringe charm.

Radio Times review

Radio 1 DJ Greg James is the poor rube dropped into the entertaining, immersive murder mystery. He's got to work out why Reese Witherspoon, owner of Successville's biggest chain of bars (see what they did there?), has been murdered. Playing junior to the gruff, unorthodox-verging-on-insane DI Sleet (deadpanned brilliantly by Tom Davis), he's criticised for being "a bit camp and weird".

But then he's got to contend with Prof Brian Cox as an awe-filled forensic scientist and Frances Barber giving a delicious turn as a rapacious Mary Berry, owner of strip club Soggy Bottoms. He can't help laughing incredulously at it all and neither will you.

Radio Times review

This is silly. Very silly indeed. Successville is a town populated by celebrities - Gordon Ramsay's the chief of police; Mary Berry runs the strip joint - and policed by maverick DI Sleet. All these people are played by actors (Tom Davis is hilarious as Sleet). But when restaurateur Bruno Tonioli is found dead, Sleet is partnered with a celebrity rookie, Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing, who's parachuted in to help solve the case.

It's a mixed-up structured reality comedy cop drama impressions show. Yet it boils down to a bunch of comedians saying increasingly ridiculous things to make Laing corpse, which he does a lot. Brilliantly silly.

New Newzoids puppets revealed

Pictures of puppets depicting Katie Hopkins, Ant and Dec, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

Ed Byrne and Jo Brand for Great Comic Relief Bake Off

16 new celebrities will be feeling the heat of Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry this February, but at least they'll have four presenters in the Bake Off tent to sweeten the deal. Regular Great British Bake Off presenters Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will be joined by comedians Ed Byrne and Jo Brand.